POV: Ishaan Kishan.
Ishaan woke up startled and panicked. He looked around trying to make sense of where he was. He felt fear grapple his heart as he climbed out of bed and ran out of the room.
Ishaan fell asleep scrolling through videos of Shubman, and now his voice was the only thing Ishaan could hear and his face was the only thing that he saw. Ishaan didn't know where he was running, but he knew where wanted to end up in; Shubman's arms.
Shreyas and Raj were sitting on the rooftop, having a smoke when they saw Ishaan running out of the gates, barefoot.
‘ What the fuck?’ Shreyas said as both of them ran down stairs, and after Ishaan.
Ishaan didn't know where he was running, all he could hear was Shubman calling his name. He ran through the winding roads, the small alleys desperately trying to find his way back.
‘ Shubman…Jaan-e-jahan??’ he whimpered as he looked all around him.
‘ Ishaan!’ Raj screamed his name.
Ishaan wasn't listening to him, it's as though Ishaan was in a trance. He didn't look where he was going, he bumped into people, he almost crashed into a motorcycle, but he was unbothered. He kept running, one alley after the other.
‘ Ishu! Do you miss me?’ Shubman's voice teased Ishaan.
‘ I…I do miss you baby’ Ishaan answered back.
Shubman's laugh engulfed him in a hug. Ishaan was soaking from sweat, his legs trembling, threatening to give out.
‘ Shubhi….’ he cried out as he turned the corner into a dark alley.
‘ Ishaan! Please stop!’ Shreyas called out to him.
Ishaan was struggling to breath, he ran a few more steps and collapsed onto the road. Dust rose from the sandy road and covered his face. Ishaan was trembling. He tried to get up when Shreyas and Raj came and stopped him.
‘ Ishu!’ Raj gasped as he saw Ishaan covered in sand.
‘ Bhai, he's…he's calling out to me..he must be alone and scared…I want to go to him’ Ishaan cried and tried to run again.
Shreyas held him back and tried to talk to him.
‘ No..no! Let me go, I.. will die without him!’ Ishaan cried and dropped down onto the ground again.
Shreyas and Raj stared at Ishaan who kept crying and calling out for Shubman.
‘ Jaani, let's go home…we ..we can find Shubman tomorrow’ Shreyas helped Ishaan get up.
‘ I…. Will I find him? I..don't know where he went’ Ishaan asked in between sobs.
‘ Let's go home for now, we will figure it out’ Raj whispered to him and helped him walk.
Shreyas and Raj helped Ishaan clean up and put him back to bed. Ishaan fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed.
‘ Why did that happen?’ Shreyas asked, playing with Ishaan's hair.
‘ He must have woken up from a dream of Shubman, couldn't differentiate between reality and dreams’ Raj said and sat down next to him.
‘ Will he be okay?’
‘ Hopefully’ Raj sighed and patted Ishaan's head.
Raj's eyes wandered to Ishaan's phone which lit up to a notification. A photo of Shubman was on the wallpaper, he was giving his back to the camera, wearing Ishaan's shirt. He couldn't believe he was seeing his little brother slowly getting destroyed in the name of love.
‘Yeh ishq tum na karna, yeh rog he lagaaye
Dafan khud kare hai, phir shauq bhi manaaye’
Note: Thank you for understanding my moments of absence. Will try to update jaldi, jaldi.